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All The Latest!

Posted by in ebooks, Giveaways, Uncategorized on Sep 22, 2014

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Greets-News 2014

The Quickie Issue

Welcome new subscribers!
For the rest of you, you just heard from me so I’ll make this quick.
My novel, All Your Pretty Dreams, is free today, Monday, through Wednesday.
Back in olden times (say, two years ago) giving away free e-books was pretty common.
I rarely do it anymore! So enjoy this special from me.
new pretty dreams 2-12All Your Pretty Dreams is a straight novel, that is, not a mystery. It’s a novel of my heart, one I really wanted to write. I had an idea years ago to write a pastiche of my favorite novel, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I first read P&P in high school English and have re-read it many times since becoming a bit of a Jane-ite (an Austen fan girl!). When I decided to write a pastiche, a take-off, of the book I wanted to put my own spin on it. It would be a gender-reverse story, where the rude outsider (Mr. Darcy in P&P) is female, and the main character with the large, embarrassing family (like Elizabeth Bennett) would be male.

The setting here isn’t England but rural Minnesota, the German-Catholic part, where I visited once with my good friend Susan. Why? Because what could be more embarrassing to a hip young man than growing up in a polka band?! Jonny learned to play accordion at his grandfather’s knee then rejected it all for a career in the Twin Cities. But when the band’s accordionist is out sick Jonny is called back to play at Polka Mass. He meets the women staying at the family motel, working on a field study. Their leader, a grad student named Isabel, is rude and full of herself. And so it begins…

The quirky characters in the novel have been compared to Anne Tyler’s, an assortment of small-town oddballs. One reviewer said: The family struggles, sad times and funny times were so real to life anyone could enjoy this book.” Another wrote: “Lise McClendon has a gift for writing fully developed, multi-layered characters dealing with the same problems that we all do, and yet seeming so unique and distinctive.”

 Enjoy and please share with a friend. Free through Wednesday at midnight.
PS: The title is a line from a Bruce Springsteen song. Do you know which one? The first correct answer gets a $25 Amazon gift card! Just reply to this email. And yes, you can play Springsteen on an accordion. 🙂
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Want to read more Austen-inspired fiction? One of my favorites is Jane Austen Made Me Do It, a short story anthology by a bunch of fabulous writers. Stephanie Barron (Francine Matthews) writes a mystery series featuring Jane which is a lot of fun. The new one out this fall is Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas.
For the true hard-core Pride and Prejudice fans I found this multi-author e-book that supposedly fills in the gaps in the novel fascinating but a little spotty on quality: Pride and Prejudice: The Scenes Jane Austen Never Wrote. 
And if you’ve never read Pride and Prejudice we must remedy that. Here’s a free Kindle version. 

Stay tuned later this fall for the Bennett Sisters novella, “Give Him That Ooh-la-la.”

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Like many of my works of fiction this is a song title as well, a tune by Cole Porter recorded by the jazz singer Blossom Dearie.  
   Listen to NPR’s Piano Jazz show to learn more about Blossom Dearie.
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New in digital this month is that madcap TV reporter, Mimi Raynard, in a short story originally published in the Thalia anthology, DEAD OF WINTER. Now you can get the story on its own.
Mimi, last seen in JUMP CUT, is trying to dig some information out of a reluctant source, using all her womanly wiles and red stilletos. Check out The Honey Trap, exclusively on Amazon.  For more of Seattle’s favorite bumbling reporter check out Jump Cut
All my best,
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